A casting company for a new Mike Leigh film about the Peterloo Massacre is looking for extras ahead of filming "in the Lincoln area" in June.

Piece of Cake Casting wants to hire men and women, aged 17 to 99, of all ethnicities with natural coloured hair and no visible piercings or tattoos, who will be paid £110 per day.

The film, due for release in 2018, tells the story of the massacre at St Peter's Field, in Manchester on August 16, 1819, when cavalrymen with sabres drawn charged a crowd of 60,000 to 80,000 people, who had met to demand the right to vote.

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At least 15 people were killed and up to 700 were injured after magistrates called on the military to arrest the radical speaker Henry Hunt, who had led the protest.

The locations for scenes to be shot locally are being kept under wraps, as are the dates for filming.

Alexandra Pickford, from Piece of Cake Casting, said: "We are still looking for a variety of characters to appear in this film, and would love the local folk to get involved, rather than bussing in London folk.

"They do not need any previous acting experience. Some of the filming is going to be in the Lincoln area.

"The main cast will be in Lincoln as well but while we are on location we always prefer to have local people as extras."

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Parts of Lincolnshire have provided the backdrops for many films. Atonement (2007) contains scenes of coastal marshes at Gedney Drove End and a beach on the Wash, while Grimsby fish docks appeared as Dunkirk at night.

Lincoln Catherdal doubled for Westminster Abbey in The Da Vinci Code (2006), and Tom Hanks came to town, and exterior airfield shots for The Dam Busters (1955) were filmed at RAF Scampton.